Environment and natural resources
Environmental and biodiversity protection
Farewell to Vo Quy, Vietnam's hero of the environment
Vietnam’s Professor Vo Quy has passed away in Hanoi at age 87. The well-known and well-loved zoologist had a storied career that spanned decades and, even in his 80s, he was still working and busy, as passionate as ever. I met Professor Vo Quy in Hanoi ...
Takeo zoo animals to get new home in SR
A group of animals, including a family of gibbons, currently living at Takeo province’s Phnom Tamao Zoo are set to be transferred to Siem Reap’s Banteay Srei district in a bid to boost eco-tourism. The animals will be moved to the Khun Ream rosewood farm ...
Hà Nội launches online air quality index
Hà Nội People’s Committee on January 9 launched an online service with information about weather conditions and environment indexes, including air quality index, rainfall and flooding. The page, hanoi.gov.vn/quantracmoitruong, is part of the People’s Committee efforts to turn the capital into a greener, smarter and friendlier ...
New shrimp breeding model produces power
A new, hi-tech shrimp breeding model that generates electricity via biogas and deals effectively with sludge is being piloted in Bến Tre Province. The project, being carried out by Japanese and Vietnamese scientists in the Mekong Delta province, deploys the closed-cycle shrimp farm model, where ...
Stronger forestry laws needed: officials
Ineffective forest management has exposed shortcomings in the 2004 Law on Forest Protection and Development that need to be addressed through amendments, officials said at a conference on December 15. Participants at the national conference in the capital city said the law defined the forest ...
New funding programme to help improve ecosystems in Borikhamxay
The Wildlife Conservation Society Laos Programme will work closely with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to protect and conserve the unique and important species, habitats, and ecosystems in Borikhamxay province. An agreement on the Integrated Ecosystem and Wildlife Management Programme Phase 3 was signed ...
Ministry moves to close vine factory
The Environment Ministry has asked Koh Kong provincial governor Bun Leut to stop construction of a factory which will process an indigenous vine and which plans to collect the yellow vine in a protected forest area. According to an official letter sent to Mr. Leut ...
Small-scale farming threatens rainforests in Sumatra
Rainforest cover in the Indonesian archipelago has since declined rapidly in recent years giving way to large-scale plantations of rubber and oil palm. A recent study published in Nature Communications finds that small-scale farming can be just as damaging to biodiversity as the plantations, since ...
Radical reform of ‘outdated’ environmental laws urged
Academics and legal experts on November 9 called for radical reforms of decades-old environmental laws, with public participation to ensure the rights of all citizens to live in healthy surroundings. The call was issued as the Law Reform Commission and the Good Governance for Social Development ...
Irrawaddy dolphins functionally extinct in Laos: Survey
The population of critically endangered Mekong River Dolphins – Irrawaddy Dolphins – in the Cheuteal trans-boundary pool between southern Laos and northern Cambodia has shrunk by 50 percent this year and the population is functionally extinct in Laos. World Wildlife Fund survey teams from Laos and ...